burning eyes
by Miss Ming
Summary: what if madara had gotten his hands on sasuke alot earlier? what there was another uchiha?
1. Chapter 1

A/N the day I own Naruto is the day that I am a sulphur crested cockatoo.

Chapter 1

Sasuke was having a bad day. Not only had his menkyo sharingan not appeared, meaning that Naruto had survived. But when he had come to a farm and tried to steal some food to replenish his low chakra and boost his low energy, a girl in her early teens had came out of the farmhouse with a Bo staff and proceeded to give him the beating of his life.

Sasuke woke up face down on a worn old mattress. His entire body hurt, especially his head, ribs and curse mark. He felt someone bandaging his arm, there was also something soothing being rubbed into his shoulder. His eyes flicked open and he saw a tall, pale, raven haired teen with her fringe coming down to almost the end of her nose.

"You awake?" She asked, a smile spreading across what he could see of her face. "Great. That means I don't have to baby feed you any more." The smile broke into a full fledged grin. Sasuke rolled over and propped himself up onto an elbow as the girl stepped back.

"Who are you?" he hissed, wincing in pain as the pain in his ribs flared up.

"My name is Mayumi. What's yours? Or do I have to make up one?"

"Mayumi! Are you talking to yourself again or has the person you hurt woken up?" a voice called from a nearby room.

"Yeah, he's awake." She turned to Sasuke. "Do you like tomato soup? I hate it and Chiasa's made heaps of it."

"Yes, thank you." He winced as pain burned around his curse mark "the name's Sasuke."

"Well, I'll go get you some Sasuke."

With that Mayumi got up and walked out of the room, dusting her hands off on her black pants as she did so.

Sasuke sat up on the mattress and looked around for his shirt. He spied it hanging off a chair in a corner beside a chest of drawers with a photograph on top. As he picked up his shirt his attention was snatched up by the photograph. It was a picture of the girl -Mayumi with a person in an orange spiral mask; the picture must have been a few years old as Mayumi looked younger. Sasuke stared at the picture, transfixed.

"That's Tobi."

Sasuke spun around suppressing a grunt of pain as he did so. Mayumi was standing in the doorway holding a bowl of soup. "He's the person who took the curse mark off your shoulder."

_That_ got a major reaction out of Sasuke. "What!" he hissed

Mayumi put the soup down beside the picture. "Tobi was stopping over- he'll coming back over tomorrow- when you tried to steal some of Chiasa's veggies. I thought you were a ninja so I attacked you, well and truly hurting you. I felt bad so I brought you inside and started fixing you up when Tobi saw the curse mark." She shrugged and scratched her head "He got really mad. Which is really weird because Tobi never gets angry. He then started growling about the crazy snake man... what's his name?"

"Orochimaru?" growled Sasuke. He couldn't believe this.

"Yeah that's it. Any way, Tobi used a super-cool jutsu and sort of exploded the seal. It kinda gave you a fever and that's why you've been unconscious for the last few days but Tobi said you'd be ok." Mayumi smiled at Sasuke placatingly.

Unfortunately it didn't work.

"Asshole!" he yelled and swung a punch at her head, sharingan blazing. Somehow Mayumi slipped underneath the punch and gave him a whack in the ribs, right where she had hit him hard a few days ago.

"What? What'd I do? If you want me to undo all the fixing I've done I can just fix just hit you a few times. The breaks are only starting to heal."

"I was supposed to train with him! With out the curse mark, he probably won't want me now! How will I get stronger that bastard?"

Mayumi jumped backwards to get lots of room between her and Sasuke. "Why not ask Tobi? He's the strongest ninja _ever_. Otherwise he might be able to put the mark-thingy back in you."

Sasuke just sent her his patented glare (the one he usually reserved for Naruto) "do you think I'm an idiot? If he was as strong as one of the sannin wouldn't he be famous?"

"Tobi? nah. He's more of the play around and be unnoticed type."

Sasuke stepped back, forcing his clenched to relax. "Fine." He spat.

"Now how's about we sit down and have some food?"

"Have you two finished arguing?" called a sharp voice from another room.

"Yes, Chiasa." Mayumi called back.

"Then bring our guest into the dining room, if he's well enough to argue, he's well enough to eat at a table."

Mayumi shrugged at Sasuke and picked up the tomato soup and carried it out. Sasuke remembered that his shirt was in his hand and painfully tugged it on before following.

Chiasa was a short well-built woman with long brown hair and tan skin, she looked nothing like Mayumi. She saw Sasuke frown as Mayumi showed him to the dining table and she decided to explain.

"Tobi brought her to me several years ago; he saved her from a group of bandits. He's also sent us a little money each month to help with the bills."

"Not to mention he's here showing me cool stuff more often than not _and_ Tobi says when I'm fourteen I can come with him." Butted in Mayumi

"Only if you can defend yourself to his standards"

Mayumi turned to Sasuke "I'm turning fourteen next month but I'm gonna try and wheedle Tobi into taking me when he comes next. I've gotten really good at my jutsu and stuff!"

Sasuke gave her a sidelong look as he sipped his soup. "Jutsu?"

"Yeah. Mostly fire ninjitsu but some other elements. Lots of different taijutsu. Not as much genjutsu, I'm not really good at it. But I can break it really easily."

There was a knock at the door and Chiasa went to answer it.

"Tobi! I thought you weren't going to be here until tomorrow!" she exclaimed when she saw who it was.

"Hello Chiasa. I thought I was going to get here tomorrow but then I realised tomorrow never comes." Said a man in an orange spiral mask. He turned to the table where Sasuke and Mayumi were sitting. "Hello Mayumi, I see your friend is awake. What's his name?"

"Tobi!" Mayumi raced over and gave him a hug. "His name's Sasuke." Her voice lowered to a semi whisper. "Between you and me, I think he's a little mad at you for removing the curse mark."

"I wonder why?" he murmured. Walking over to the table where Sasuke was finishing off his soup, he asked "so why do you want that curse mark?"

Sasuke glared at Tobi. "For power. I am an avenger. I must avenge my clan at all costs, no matter what. Orochimaru has offered me this power and I have accepted."

"Are you aware that he'll use you as a body?" Tobi asked nonchalantly, as if this was just local gossip.

"It's obvious that he wants you for your body."

"Eww! Tobi! That sounds so gross!" moaned Mayumi

Sasuke frowned. He knew there was going to be a catch to his training with Orochimaru, but he hadn't expected this. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"As in the only way Orochimaru has lasted this long is by taking the bodies of others and using them as his own. With the jutsu he uses he could very well live forever, as long as he's not killed in battle that is."

Mayumi thought Sasuke's look of disgust and horror was identical to the one on that must have been on her face. Then that look turned black, blacker than any thundercloud she had ever seen.

"He's going to pay for that." Sasuke growled. Turning to Mayumi, he asked "you said Tobi would train me, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then I want it."

Mayumi opened her mouth slightly then closed it and silently pointed to Tobi.

"Will you?" asked Sasuke

"Yes." Tobi answered and Sasuke was sure he was grinning underneath that spiral mask of his.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n owning naruto?... nah too much work to draw that much.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2<p>

'You'd need crazy ass chakra control to do medical ninjitsu' thought Mayumi as she watched Tobi heal the last of Sasuke's injuries. After watching for a few minutes she wandered off to practice with her Bo staff.

She did her warm-ups then started with her basic patterns, blurring through them like quicksilver. Then, moving up slowly into more advanced patterns, she began her own form of meditation. Thoughts flowing like water, bringing back memories that Mayumi would otherwise forget.

Hazy memories from before Tobi came for her.

* * *

><p>Mayumi remembered walking down the hallways of a grand house, Mummy beside her. They were heading towards a door with a giant red and white paper fan painted on it.<p>

Suddenly Mayumi was afraid.

The fan turned into an enormous red eye and blood started seeping out from under the door. She turned to mummy, only to find a grinning skeleton staring back at her with the same eyes as that Sasuke boy had.

She tried to pull away, only to find that the skeleton had a tight grip on her. A hard yank did the trick and Mayumi ran down the corridor through a rising tide of blood. She saw a half open door and shut her self in.

It was a young girl's room. Neat and familiar Mayumi opened the wardrobe, slipping inside to hide. The red began to seep through the walls, and the door was flung open. A man in black with a gnarled face strode forward, blade in hand.

A flash of steel accompanied by a scream and her blood met the light of day.

* * *

><p>"Mayumi! Mayumi! Wake up!" Tobi slapped the unresponsive teen. A few moments ago she had been going about her Bo staff routines and then with a scream she suddenly collapsed.<p>

Sasuke stood off to one side, 'this guy... is fast' he thought. When Mayumi screamed, Sasuke had hardly even seen him move. He couldn't match that speed; it was starting to sound like Mayumi's boasts were true.

Tobi parted the long fringe and peered into Mayumi's eye. "Sasuke, go into the house and ask Chiasa for the red bottle of smelling salts. Don't sniff them."

Sasuke ran into the house and found Chiasa clearing a mouse trap in the kitchen. "Chiasa?"

"Yes?"

"Where would I find the red bottle of smelling salts?"

Chiasa frowned. "Who for? Actually don't answer that." She hunted around in the pantry and pulled out a large tin box with a strange seal like design inscribed on the lid. "Just take the whole box out to the pair of them. They'll know what to do."

Sasuke hurried back to where Tobi was crouched by Mayumi. "Here." He handed the box over. Tobi pulled off the lid and rummaged inside pulling out a tiny red vial he advised, "Hold your breath." He unplugged the little thing near Mayumi's nose and the effect was instant. She jerked upright, clutching at her throat. Her fingers caught on her purple cow neck top and the choker necklace that was hidden underneath it to reveal for a second an old scar that ran across her neck.

"What happened?" Mayumi asked, spying the red vial. "Why is that here?"

"We couldn't wake you up." Said Sasuke.

"Oi! Tobi! You put a genjutsu on me!" she howled

Tobi frowned he had done no such thing. But to placate her he confirmed her theories. "Yes I did. Was it very good?"

Mayumi glared daggers at him and quick as a snake she punched him in the gut. "That's not nice Tobi!"

Sasuke was impressed. If this guy could train an apparently idiotic girl like her to be as good as she seemed to be, then he most probably could teach him how to defeat his brother. Anyone could have seen she hadn't been under a genjutsu. "idiot." He murmured under his breath.

Mayumi's head snapped up at him. "Herd that ya bastard! Don't you dare call me an idiot!"

Sasuke flinched at the all too familiar insult and his hand, unbidden reached up touch the spot where until recently something very important had sat on his forehead.

The scowl faded from Mayumi's face. "Is the fracture hurting?"

Tobi coughed. "Mayumi, I healed that. There is no fracture to hurt anymore." He stood and stretched. "Sasuke, Mayumi, start sparring. Both of you, no mutilation. Chiasa would be mad and I wouldn't be a good boy." He pulled Mayumi up and handed her Bo staff to her. "Begin"

* * *

><p>Sasuke began by throwing shuriken at Mayumi who dodged and swung her Bo staff along and up at him. He leapt up and landed on the staff, sending it crashing to the ground. "Fire release: fire ball jutsu!" he incanted, forming the appropriate hand signs. Mayumi leapt back from the large fireball and landed some five meters away with an enormous grin on her face.<p>

"I think you missed!" she called before leaping back at him at such speed that without his sharingan activated he couldn't see her properly. A flying kick came at him from the sky and he had barely enough time to throw up a block before it hit. He activated his sharingan and flashed forward for a barrage of punches but somehow dodged each one of them with equal speed. Mayumi caught his last punch, flicked it up behind his back before he could react. She then pushed him away and floated backward like smoke.

Sasuke whirled around to face his irritating opponent. He leapt into the air, throwing a brace of shuriken on wire strings. They flew at Mayumi, wrapping around her and pinning her arms. He allowed himself a smirk of satisfaction. That wasn't so hard.

Turning to Tobi Sasuke got a mildly unpleasant surprise. Mayumi was sitting there talking to him! She grinned and dispelled the smoke clone that he had caught. "Nice going Sasuke!" she called "you caught me... almost!"

This time it was Sasuke's 'I can't believe you just were able to do that to me Naruto' glare that she got. He saw Tobi lean over and say something in Mayumi's ear. The grin on her face seemed to get wider, if possible. She leaped off the branch high into the air and disappeared.

He spotted her chakra underground and jumped back as she tried to grab his ankle. Sasuke bounced off a tree and kicked her in the abdomen as Mayumi jumped out of the ground after the failed attempt at pulling him into the earth.

"I guess you already knew that one?" Mayumi laughed as they traded blows.

"loser." The Uchiha growled. 'Was that grin glued on or something?'

She then pulled some ninja wire out from who knows where and whipped it around his hands as he did the first seal for _fire release: fireball jutsu_

"Ever had it done backwards?" Sasuke's hands were pulled up, over, backwards and down as Mayumi dove into the earth.

Sasuke found himself buried upside down up to his nose in the ground, his hands deep in the earth.

A moment later a sharp blade pressed against his chin.

"Do you give up?" Mayumi's voice asked

A smirk spread across Sasuke's mouth and he swung both his feet down onto Mayumi's head. "no." He said as she slid to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

><p>Tobi walked over to where Sasuke was buried upside down in the ground and grasped his foot. "Don't kick me. I'm pulling you out." He said and pulled. 'Oh yes, he's perfect.' He thought then looked over at the unconscious Mayumi. 'and so is she... especially with her eyes.'<p>

a/n please review


	3. Chapter 3 a new town

Chapter three

Chiasa sipped at her tea as Tobi brought the two teens in. With the performance that they had given, it looked like Mayumi and that Uchiha boy were going to be going with her Tobi when he left. They had both put up a good fight even with Tobi ordering Mayumi to not use her dojutsu. For a while, Chiasa had been afraid that Mayumi would be hurt badly because of the restrictions Tobi had put on her. But of course, her fears were unfounded.

She chuckled dryly. "It seems that amnesiac Tobi brought so long ago has grown on me."

The two came in, arguing on who had won.

"Of course I won, I had a kunai to your throat!" exclaimed Mayumi

"And unconscious a second later." Replied Sasuke coolly

"I still won!"

"Hn." Sasuke sat in a dining room chair and plucked a tomato out of the fruit bowl. "Whatever."

"Sasuke, Mayumi, would you mind getting some vegetables for dinner?" Chiasa asked, giving Mayumi a pointed look.

Mayumi looked at Sasuke. "Come on."

"No thanks."

She tugged on Sasuke's sleeve. "The only time she ever tells us to get vegetables," she whispered in Sasuke's ear "is when she wants to do..._ stuff_." A second tug pulled him off the chair and onto the floor. She then gave him her eye-blinding Cheshire grin "coming?"

Sasuke scowled at her, an entirely new scowl just for her- he had to come up with a name for it. "Coming."

The two teens walked out the door, leaving Tobi and Chiasa by themselves.

"Those seals of yours are coming undone?" Chiasa asked as she sipped her tea

"I have never claimed to be a seal master." Tobi sighed "I guess I have to take them both with me."

"Awwwww, Tobi. I guess with out Mayumi here to lure you; you won't come much any more." She said as she snuggled into his shoulder.

Tobi smiled, lifting his mask from the chin up to deliver a gloriously romantic...

* * *

><p>Through the window, two horrified teens spun away from the window.<p>

"Tobi's scarred me for life! Look at this, I'm shaking!" Mayumi exclaimed. "That's got to be the grossest thing I've ever seen in my entire life!"

Sasuke smirked at her. "You think that's bad?" he asked, thinking back to his first day as a genin.

"Chiasa kissed Tobi! That's got to be worse than watching someone's guts spill out! We should have just picked vegetables."

Sasuke agreed and they both hurried off to pick the vegetables for dinner.

* * *

><p>That evening everyone minus Tobi sat around a pot of delicious stew, devouring it. Later on Tobi came in and sat down, holding a box in his hands. Mayumi and Sasuke stare at the box. Varnished and carved, it was sturdy but beautiful. Two voices sounded at once,<p>

"Why does it have a sharingan?" and "why do you have my ninjitsu box?" were the two vocalisations.

"Hm?" Tobi feigned looking over the box with great care. "Mayumi, I assume you know the jutsu in here?"  
>"... Yeah..." the smile was gone for the first time gone from her face and replaced by wary caution. "Tobi, what maniacal plan are you coming up with?"<p>

"Oh nothing much. And since it doesn't belong to you anymore you won't mind me doing this." He then did a quick set of seals then proceeded to scorch the sharingan symbol with a purple flamed fire jutsu. "Here you go Sasuke."

"Nyaaah Tobi! You. Are. A. Monster!" howled Mayumi she seemed intent on copying the painting 'the scream' and was doing a good job.

Sasuke opened the box and grabbed the one on top. His excitement turned to disappointment however, when he found there was only one jutsu there. "Fire palm jutsu? That's it?" Sasuke growled as Tobi stood.

"Yep. We leave tomorrow. If you have any questions about the scrolls; ask Mayumi. Good night." He said cheerily and walked off.

After checking the rest of the scrolls, he found that they all had only one jutsu on each of them. He turned to Mayumi only to find that Naruto patented 'I have ramen and you don't' grin plastered all over her face.

"What?" he growled

"You won't learn any better jutsu until you've learnt that one. Once you've learnt the jutsu, you perform it on the scroll and the next one will show up."

Sasuke glared at her and stalked off. He just couldn't believe that he had swapped one idiot for another.

* * *

><p>The next morning Sasuke woke with the dawn. Creeping out of his room by the window with the box of scrolls, he landed silently in the vegetable garden. He had their jutsu now and if he was lucky, Orochimaru would still take him. These two were just... SPLAT! Something hit the back of his head and slithered down the back of his collar.<p>

"Score! I got him in the duck-butt!" a zucchini whistled past him. "Where d' ya think you're going without us?"

Sasuke whirled and spotted them on top of the house with a basket between them. They stood and leapt off the roof, landing beside the irate Uchiha.

"Duck-butt? You're worse than the dobe."

Tobi turned to Mayumi. "Got everything?"

"Yep, even the kitchen sink's somewhere."

A nod from Tobi and he turned to Sasuke. The said teen stood with barely disguised irritation staring at the two over-friendly ninja.

"Time to go get you and Mayumi kitted out. Mayumi only has two kunai and her staff and you have nothing in the way of weapons." Said Tobi. "So we head to a friend of mine in a nearby village."

A grunt from Sasuke affirmed Tobi's conclusion and followed him as they set off.

"Tobi, is your friend the one in the village on the border of the land of rice paddies and the land of hot water?" Mayumi asked

Tobi nodded "yep! Haro owes me a favour or two. So he should get you some weapons and such like."

They leapt off, leaving the house behind in the early morning light.

* * *

><p>Two days later they reached a town on the border of the land of rice paddies and the land of hot water. Though it was a small town, there were people everywhere. Sasuke watched with curiosity as Mayumi slipped in behind Tobi and grasped his elbow lightly. Tobi looked at her in slight surprise.<p>

"I can't keep it up." She whispered just loud enough for Sasuke to hear.

"It's ok. Release the jutsu."

Sasuke frowned. He wondered how long whatever jutsu it was had been going. Mayumi slumped and both she and Tobi slowed a little. They reached a small weapons shop on the main street.

"Wait here while I talk to Haro. Sasuke can I have your arm?"

Sasuke stared at him for a moment. "hn." Before handing over his arm.

Tobi slipped Mayumi's hand onto Sasuke's arm and whispered in her ear before walking inside. For a long moment Sasuke stared at Mayumi as she stood impassively, with a small grin on her face.

"What's with you?" he finally asked

Mayumi suddenly snapped to attention, the grin almost disappearing for a moment. What's with me about what?"

"With what ever that jutsu was!" Sasuke growled

The grin disappeared completely. "It was nothing!" she turned and fled.

Sasuke stood staring after Mayumi as she disappeared into the crowd. Tobi stuck his head out from the shop behind Sasuke.

"All right you two time to get... Sasuke, where's Mayumi?"

"She ran off."

"Shit. We have to find her before her dojutsu uses all her chakra." Tobi chucked Sasuke three kunai. "Which way did she go?"

Sasuke pointed wordlessly. _That useless idiot has a dojutsu?_ He wondered as Tobi took off, motioning for him to follow. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, they spotted her running toward the hot springs on the edge of town. Tobi motioned for Sasuke to drop down to street level. Sasuke refused, he had spotted an easily recognisable mass of white hair near the women's bath houses.

"I can't. If I get seen by that man he will take me back to my village." He explained, pointing.

Tobi followed his gaze. "You have Jiraiya of the after you?" he asked in surprise

Sasuke nodded.

"Then stay here." He said and jumped down into the street.

* * *

><p>an I had intended to put in a bit more into this but here seemed like the best place to stop it.

review please!


	4. Chapter 4

if i owned this would i bother to write a fan fiction?

Chapter four

Mayumi stared at the man in front of her. He had been peeking into the women's bathhouse and giggling to himself.

_This must be one of those perverts that Chiasa told me about!_ Thought Mayumi. "Oi! Ladies in the bath! You're being peeked on!" she yelled.

The man whirled around and glared at her. "How can you see me?" he hissed as a rumble from the bathhouses signalled a horde of well endowed angry women coming nearer. Because of her dojutsu Mayumi could see that Tobi and Sasuke were just behind them.

"Just luck I guess?" she asked "I'm Mayumi. Who are you?"

"I am the great Jiraiya of the sannin! The greatest sage in the land!" the man said, removing the jutsu he had been using to hide.

Mayumi sweat dropped. "And the biggest pervert." She then felt the pervert's stare grow heavy on her.

"Are you aware that you have memory seals on you?" he asked.

Mayumi stumbled back, the shock of what he said deactivating her dojutsu and plunging her into darkness. "W-w-what?"

Tobi jumped from the rooftop and landed beside Mayumi. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

"Tobi?" Mayumi asked

He nodded as she grasped his hand and they leapt off. Running along the sun warmed roofs they reached the point where Sasuke would meet them. The irate emo was already there chucking a tomato in the air with one hand and threw it at Mayumi. He watched in surprise as she didn't react but instead Tobi gave her a nudge and she flicked in behind him, letting the tomato sail past.

"Now play nice the pair of you." Said Tobi. "We're going back to the weapons shop, getting our weapons and going."

The threesome walked back to the weapons shop, this time Tobi ushering them inside. It was a small but high quality weapons shop. Weapons gleamed from all corners of the room and a short rotund man sat in a chair by the counter.

"So these are your brats Tobi?" he rumbled "took you long enough to get them." he heaved himself out of the chair and lumbered over to greet them.

"There was a complication. Anyhow, this Sasuke and Mayumi. My new kiddies. Like em?"

Haro looked them both up and down, scratching his belly. "Hoi, are you two related?"

Sasuke scowled. "What makes you say that?"

"Let's see pale skin, midnight black hair- granted the girls is a little on the purple side, bodies built for speed and agility..." he then lumbered to the counter and grabbed something from behind it. "Hold onto this here card and channel some chakra into it." He said holding out a piece of card to Sasuke.

Sasuke did so watching as three quarters of it turned to ash and the other quarter wrinkled. He looked at the store keeper in confusion, wondering what had just taken place.

"So, your primary element is fire and your secondary element is lightning..." said Haro as he turned to Mayumi. "Your turn."

Mayumi slowly reached out for the card, Sasuke noticing her hand being guided by discreet nudges from Tobi. She pushed some chakra into it, following Sasuke's example. Her result was that three quarters of the paper turned to ash and the last quarter cut itself up.

Haro stood a little straighter in surprise. "Fire for your primary and wind for your secondary?" there was something suddenly very interesting in his ear. "Now that's an interesting combination. What are your full names?"

Sasuke stood a little straighter, "Sasuke Uchiha."

Haro nodded as if this that had explained everything. Mayumi went to open her mouth but Tobi spoke up, "Mayumi can't remember her original name."

"Hoi, now that's a pity." Haro went back to scratching his overly round belly

"Haro, we were here for weapons..."

"Right. Usual fit out? Any special weapons? I'd suggest a sword for him."

"It's up to them."

Haro began to fit them out with weapons, kunai, shuriken and other equipment. While Mayumi was getting fitted out Sasuke spotted a sword hanging on the wall. He walked over to it and touched its sheath, a chokuto.

Haro looked over at Sasuke. "Hoi, a perfect weapon for you. Take it down and see how it feels."

Sasuke frowned and took it down, feeling the comfortable weight of the sword in his hand.

"You like it?" asked Tobi

Sasuke nodded, unsheathing the chokuto to look at its blade.

"Haro stocks only the best items."

"Hn."

"Anything you like Mayumi?"

Haro had just finished stocking Mayumi with her weapons and she was browsing the racks. Her hand rested on a staff with metal caps on its ends. She picked it up and tested its weight, her ever-present grin widening.

"This."

Haro looked up from stocking Sasuke up with gear. "An interesting choice. See the three seals? Chanel chakra into the left and right ones."

Mayumi, surprised did as she was told. Finding three small seals near the middle of the staff she channelled only a tiny amount into them. She activated her dojutsu for a moment and to her surprise she saw a small blade on each end of the staff.

"The more chakra you put into those, the longer they get. The middle seal retracts the blades." Said Haro. "Both of your weapons are chakra conductive too."

Mayumi retracted the tiny blades and Sasuke frowned at Tobi. Chakra conductive weapons were expensive, what kind of favour was this?

Mayumi's ever present grin stretched so wide that her face threatened to split in half.

Tobi walked over to Haro and shook his hand keeping eye contact as he did so. Under his bright orange mask and childish facade this idiotic store keeper hadn't suspected a thing. Sure once the genjutsu was lifted Haro would be a vegetable, but...

"Thank you my dear friend." He said out loud. "Good bye."

He ushered the two teens out, leaving the man crumbling under the weight of his own mind.

Sasuke ran his hand over the hilt of his chokuto, marvelling at the power he had been given. This sword would be used to kill his brother. Over to the right of him, Mayumi was running her hands over her new staff feeling her first true ninja weapon. Sasuke spared a glare for the confusing girl, if he didn't know he would have thought she was blind. Then there was her 'adoptive father'. He hid behind a spiral mask and a carefree attitude, but he had seen with his sharingan; the power he kept hidden.

And Sasuke was going to get it.


	5. Chapter 5 learning curve

Chapter 5

"Idiot!"

"Bastard!"

Tobi waded between the two 'sparring' teens; thanking Kami he had restricted it to only taijutsu. Not that it looked like a spar; it looked more like a brawl.

"You two kids," he said, not at all his playful self. "I said spar. Not beat each other into oblivion." Pulling the two apart.

"But Tobi..." Mayumi whined shaking her head and revealing a scarlet red eye for a moment. "He called me a back country idiot!"

"And you called him a bastard back. Now the pair of you be nice and make up."

The pair of teens glared at each other for a full minute before Mayumi took the initiative. "Sorry..."

Sasuke just gave her his 'too cold to care' look then replied with a "hn."

"See! We're all friends again!" Tobi exclaimed, sweeping them into a bone crushing hug.

Later that day Mayumi was fishing in a stream, trying to forget the stupid fight when footsteps came up behind her.

"What do you want, Sasuke?" she asked

"Hn."

Something hit her in the forehead and she yelled at him, furious. "What was that for you ass!"

"You couldn't catch a simple snack? What kind of ninja are you?" Sasuke growled

The air seemed to drop ten degrees. "A bloody blind one. That's what!" Mayumi hissed pulling up her nose length fringe to reveal to blank, white, staring orbs.

Taken aback Sasuke reviewed his information for a moment, coming across a very important detail. "But Tobi said you had a dojutsu."

Mayumi went back to fishing, "yeah. He did."

"Show me."

"Get lost Sasuke."

Sasuke walked back to the camp, mulling over what he had just learnt. Ridiculous, a blind ninja. Then that Mayumi girl told him to get lost? Didn't she know who he was? He was Sasuke _Uchiha_. From the elite Uchiha clan. He deserved to know!

"Ah! There you are Sasuke. Have you learnt 'fire palm jutsu' yet?" Tobi asked as he set up the tents.

"Hn"

"Well you may as well show me then." Tobi indicated to a tree stump near the edge of the clearing.

Sasuke gave a short nod in affirmation and stalked over to the stump, flicking through the hand seals. He lashed out at the stump and where his hand connected it left a scorch mark. Finishing the jutsu, he turned and nodded to Tobi.

"Bravo, bravo!" the orange masked man was clapping like a clown who had just won a cream pie contest. "Well done!"

Sasuke allowed himself a smirk "Hn." As he walked off to perform the jutsu on the fire scroll.

Tobi sat down beside a seemingly serene Mayumi as she fished with one hand and ran her hand down a scroll slowly with the other.

"Hi Tobi." Smiled at him. "No that can't be right," she muttered and moved her hand a little to the left. "Tobi, does this say 'cow' or 'now'?" she held the scroll up for inspection.

"'Now' I believe." He cocked his head to one side, "What's it about?"

A huge grin split Mayumi's face. "Sealing!"

Tobi face-faulted behind his mask. "A-are you serious?"

"Yep. It's so I can do stuff!" Mayumi waved her arms for emphasis and sent the fishing rod into the stream. "Nooo! Come back. Tobi, where is it!"

Tobi sighed and fished the rod out of the stream. "Here. Why not learn to make chakra strings?"

A confused look crossed Mayumi's face. "What are those?"

"They are strings of chakra that sand ninja use to manipulate pupates with."

"Ninja play with toys?"

Stupid, stupid scroll. 'Fire whip.' What kind of a name for a jutsu was that?

After performing 'fire palm jutsu' on the scroll, 'fire whip jutsu' had come up. What kind of jutsu were these? First there was the one where you actually had to touch your opponent to give them the most minor of burns and now this. He couldn't defeat _him_ with this. Sasuke stalked over to where Tobi and the dead-last look a like were talking. The nerve of the shop keeper to say that they were related.

"Tobi, what kind of a joke is this?" he asked

"If was to make a joke I'd say a leaf-nin, a sand-nin and a rock-nin all walked into a bar..." Tobi started

"Stop! These jutsu are useless."

"You will be the third person in the world to know those jutsu, Sasuke and none of them are useless." Tobi's voice lost his joking quality, telling him that statement.

"How? Mayumi didn't even use any of these jutsu in our first fight."

A fish flew through the air and hit Sasuke in the face. Mayumi turned around with one of Naruto's 'I just pranked ya' grins on her face. "I happen to need my dojutsu for most of those low level fire jutsu and Tobi forbade me from using it." She thumbed her nose at him and blew a raspberry. "Don't ruin dinner with your emo-ness."

Sasuke growled and threw the fish back. "Fight me."

Mayumi stopped cold and the slithered down her top; she turned to Tobi for confirmation. "Tobi?"

"Sure, why not."

"You're on, duck-butt."

Behind his mask, Tobi smirked. Looked like all his subtle genjutsu while she had been asleep over the last few years had been paying off. Now, what to do about that Uchiha boy?

They faced off on the other side of the stream than their camp.

"The only ninjitsu allowed are replacement, clone, transformation, fire palm and fire whip. No genjutsu. No weapons either." Tobi chirped from the sidelines. "...Begin!"

Sasuke leapt at Mayumi who completed the hand seals for 'fire palm jutsu' and leapt out of the way. She lashed out at him with her left hand while keeping her right for defence. Sasuke found out the hard way that blocking was not a good idea when the opponent had hands that could melt metal if given enough chakra and time.

"Sasuke, fire palm jutsu is one of the best fire jutsu for close range combat and when only using enough chakra for water walking in a shallow pond you can scorch your opponent quite well." Tobi chirped.

"Shut up!" Sasuke growled before dodging a second attack from Mayumi.

Sasuke growled and went on the offensive, going through the seals for fire palm jutsu. Attacking Mayumi with his chakra enhanced hands; he got passed her defence and slammed his hand into her abdomen. He allowed himself a smirk of success when he saw the skin redden and Mayumi hiss, leaping away from the burning hand. Mayumi was well out of range for another taijutsu attack and was flashing through the signs for fire whip jutsu. Her grin grew as wide as the Hokage monument as a literal whip of fire sprouted from her left hand. It flicked and hissed as Mayumi sent its end to lick Sasuke's arm, leaving a scorch mark. Sasuke growled and replaced himself with a log as the whip lashed out again toward his head. Appearing beside Tobi, he just sent a cold glare to the _oh-so-childish_ ninja.

"You know, your fire palm jutsu can hold on to fire jutsu right? Just heat your hands up to the same amount."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow "Hn" and leaped off the tree branch, sharingan activated. Watching the chakra in Mayumi's jutsu, he added chakra to his still active fire palm jutsu. Grabbing hold of the fire whip, he pulled her in close. Mayumi lost her footing as she did so and was left open to a flurry of hits from Sasuke. Using the replacement jutsu Mayumi appeared behind him and sent him flying with a chakra enhanced kick to the back.

Springing off a tree Sasuke flew through the hand signs that he had copied for fire whip and slashed at her. He smirked in satisfaction when the end of the whip seared off half of Mayumi's fringe.

His triumph quickly turned to shock as a blood red iris, with three tomoe extending out beyond it. In shock, Sasuke's jutsu dissipated and whispered "sharingan..."

A/N well there you go. I know its been a while, I'm sorry.


End file.
